Bob Hope Airport

It's taken eight years and $6 million for Burbank airport officials to come up with a proposed solution to ease sleep-depriving aircraft noise that has frustrated nearby residents for decades: Shift some overnight operations to Van Nuys Airport. The recommendation by the Glendale-Burbank-Pasadena Airport Authority is the latest chapter in what has been among the most acrimonious homeowner battles in the San Fernando Valley.

Terminal A at Bob Hope Airport was evacuated briefly Tuesday morning after a passenger in the security area was improperly screened, authorities said. The person has since been accounted for, said Victor Gill, airport spokesman. At 8:35 a.m., the terminal checkpoint, which serves Southwest, US Airways, JetBlue and Skybus airlines, was reopened and passengers were being re-screened for entry, he said.

The Thanksgiving travel season got off to a bad start as dozens of flights were delayed or diverted Sunday night into Monday morning because of dense fog blanketing Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. And Southern California can expect another weather menace later this week: the return of Santa Ana winds. Thick coastal fog also shut down one of two runways for arriving flights at Los Angeles International Airport late Monday night.

Expecting a last-minute crush of holiday travelers, Valencia resident Zack Robertson figured he had better get to Los Angeles International Airport early Wednesday for his 11:45 a.m. flight to Houston. When he arrived at 4 a.m., there were already about 400 people waiting in line outside the Southwest Airlines terminal. But Robertson, 18, considered himself lucky. "I thought it would be a lot worse than it actually is right now," he said.

Seattle-based Boeing Aircraft and Transport Co. bought 243 acres on Hollywood Way -- the future site of Burbank airport. The $1-million purchase came after a U.S. Commerce Department survey recommended Burbank as an ideal site for a Los Angeles-area airport. Boeing built hangars, airplane factories, administrative buildings and a flight school, and through Boeing's parent company, United Aircraft and Transportation Corp., other subsidiaries constructed plants there.

Passengers at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport this summer may have to park in Van Nuys. With a record number of travelers expected through September, officials expect they will run out of parking and have asked Los Angeles if they can use its Van Nuys park-and-ride lot. Burbank airport operators acknowledge that advising customers to park several miles away may cancel out the reason they patronize the airfield in the first place.

A private jet with seven aboard -- including New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez -- slightly overran a runway at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport on Friday and was stopped by a special material designed to keep craft on the airfield, officials said. No one was injured after the Gulfstream landed on the airport's east-west Runway 8, slowed down and then turned into an area covered with a system designed to bring aircraft to a stop, said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.

Officials who oversee Bob Hope Airport in Burbank decided Monday to seek federal approval of a controversial nighttime ban on flight operations -- restrictions, they assert, that will reduce noise in nearby communities and have little effect on other airports in the region. The proposed curfew would prohibit flights by airlines, cargo operations, couriers and private pilots between 10 p.m. and 6:59 a.m. with exceptions for emergencies, law enforcement, medical flights and military aircraft.

Federal officials on Monday dealt a serious blow to a decades-long effort to restrict nighttime flights at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, asserting that to do so would harm the national air transportation system. The Federal Aviation Administration rejected a proposed curfew that would have banned flights by airlines, cargo operators, charter services and private pilots between 10 p.m. and 6:59 a.m. with some exceptions, including emergencies. The airlines now operate under a voluntary agreement not to fly between those hours.

Officials at Los Angeles World Airports have persuaded the budget air carrier JetBlue to begin flying out of Los Angeles International Airport, sources familiar with the company's plans said Monday. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is scheduled to appear today with JetBlue executives to announce plans for 16 additional daily flights at four airports across Southern California. A JetBlue spokesman refused to discuss the plans. But city officials said starting May 21, LAX would see three flights per day to JFK International Airport in New York City and one per day to Logan International Airport in Boston.